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Wisdom of the 
North American Indian 

IN 

Speech and Legend 

BY 

ALEXANDER FRANCIS CHAMBERLAIN 



Jtmetitan Jfttftquartan gotititi 



Wisdom of the 
North American Indian 

IN 

Speech and Legend 

BY 

ALEXANDER FRANCIS CHAMBERLAIN 



Reprinted from the Proceedings op the American Antiquarian Society 
for April, 1913. 



WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A. 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 
1913 



THE DAVIS PRESS 

WOBCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS 



JUL 1 5 1^ 



a 



WISDOM OF THE NORTH AMERICAN 
INDIAN IN SPEECH AND LEGEND. 



The cardinal doctrine of anthropology today, — the 
essential unity of all the races of man, — is susceptible 
of proof in several ways, but in no fashion more thorough- 
ly, or more satisfactorily, than by reference to the reac- 
tions of all tribes and peoples, individually and collective- 
ly, to what may be termed the generic human situations 
and circumstances. There is a certain sort and bulk 
of wisdom that seems to be independent of race, color, 
or any other specific limiting characteristic. All over 
the world, men and women, of the most diverse physical 
constitution are found to think or to do in the generically 
human situations what is practically the human thing 
there to think or to do. Some philosophic students of 
mankind would have us believe that these " generically 
human" situations, or sets of circumstances, to which 
it is possible to react in the manner indicated, are few 
in number,— as few, perhaps, as the seven dramatic 
situations, to which every successful play must, it is 
said, closely or remotely approach; or the equally small 
number (estimates vary from three to ten) of jokes, 
within whose limits are included all effective wit and 
humor. Be this as it may, there exists no race of man, 
that has not contributed, or could not contribute to the 
general stock some of the generic wisdom in question 
here; and certainly the American Indian is one of the 
world's peoples, whose wisdom, at so many points, 
belongs quite in the same class with our own. The 
intention of the present writer is to cite and discuss 
briefly such "wise words" of the Red race, as might, 



4 



had they been spoken by a white man, have rightly been 
recorded in such a work as Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 
or Bent's Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 

The material here offered, collected from many sourc- 
es, may be arranged roughly under the following general 
heads: (1) Speeches and Sayings of Celebrated Indians 
of a brief sort; (2) The Indian on the Frailties and 
Foibles of Men and Women; (3) Indian Words of Aspir- 
ation, Faith, Devotion, etc. ; (4) Indian Words about the 
Family, Home, Love, Childhood, etc. 

The discussion of another topic, "The Indian on the 
Race-Question" is reserved for a future occasion. 

/. Speeches and Sayings of Celebrated Indians. 

1. American Horse (Sioux chief, 1890). 
We were made many promises, but have never heard from them since. 

2. Appanoose (a chief of the Sauks). 
I am happy that two great men meet and shake hands with each other 
(said to Gov. Everett, in 1837, at Boston). 

3. Black Hawk (the famous chief of the Sauks and Foxes). 

(a) The Great Spirit punishes those who deceive us, and my faith is 
now pledged (said to Col. Eustis, in 1833). 

(b) I am a man and you are another (said to President Jackson, at 
Washington, in 1833). 

4. Joseph Brant, or Thayendinaga (a chief of the Mohawks). 
(a) If your purpose is war, I am ready for you (said to Gen. Herkimer, 

in 1777). 

(6) What! Kill a woman and child! No! That child is not an 
enemy to the King, not a friend to the Congress. Long before he will be 
big enough to do any mischief, the dispute will be settled (said to Col. 
Butler, at Wyoming, in 1778). 

5. Canonicus (a sachem of the Narragansetts). 
I have never suffered any wrong to be done to the English, since they 
landed, nor ever will (said to Roger Williams). 

6. Garangula, or Grangula (an orator of the Onondagas, 1684). 
We are born free. We depend neither on Yonondio (France) nor on 
Corlaer (England). 

7. Honayawus, or Farmer's Brother (famous chief of the Senecas). 

The Great Spirit spoke to the whirlwind and it was still (said, in 1798, 
of the war of the Revolution and its close). 



5 



8. Keokuk (famous chief of the Sauks). 

(a) The Great Spirit has sent our brother back. Let us shake hands 
in friendship (said, on return of Black Hawk from captivity, in 1833). 

(b) The Great Spirit, as you have said, made us the same; we only 
speak different languages (said to Gov. Everett, at Boston, in 1837). 

(c) The heart of our great father was good; he spoke like the father of 
children. The Great Spirit made his heart big in council (said, at Fort 
Armstrong, Illinois, in 1833, on the release of Black Hawk). 

9. Little Black (a chief of the Winnebagos). 
My father, I ask nothing but a clear sky above our heads, which have 
been hanging down lately, and the sky has been dark, and the wind has 
been blowing continually and trying to blow lies in our ears, but we turn 
our ears from it. But when we look toward you, the weather is clear and 
the wind does not blow (said to Mr. Gratiot, in 1832). 

10. Little Turtle, or Mishikinakwa (a chief of the Miamis). 

(a) We have beaten the enemy twice under separate commanders. 
We cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The 
Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps; the day and the night 
are alike to him. And, during all the time that he has been marching 
upon our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, 
we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is 
something whispers me, it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace 
(said in council, before the battle of Presqu' Isle, in 1793). 

(6) Why should not these Tartars, who resemble us, have come from 
America? Are there any reasons to the contrary? Or why should we 
not have both been born in our own country? (said to Volney, the traveler, 
who met him at Philadelphia, in 1797). 

(c) He mistakes. I was just thinking of proposing to this man to paint 
us both on one board, and there I would stand face to face with him, and 
blackguard him to all eternity (said, while having his picture painted, of 
an Irishman with whom he had several jesting-bouts; the latter had begun 
to boast of victory). 

See Drake, Abor. Races of N. Amer., 15th ed. (N. Y., 
1882), pp. 72-75. 

11. Logan, or Tabgayeeta (famous chief of the Cayugas). 
[Concerning the famous "speech of Logan," Dr. Cyrus Thomas says: 
"This supposed speech was probably only a memorandum written down 
from his statement and afterwards read before the treaty meeting at 
Chillicothe, at which Logan was not present." (Handb. of Amer. Inds. 
North of Mexico, vol. I, 1907, p. 772).] 

The most remarkable passage of this "speech" is as follows: 
"I appeal to any white man to say if he entered Logan's cabin hungry 
and he gave him not meat. If he ever came cold and naked and he 
clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, 
Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my 



6 



love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and 
said, ' Logan is the friend of the white man. ' I had even thought to have 
lived among you but for the injuries of one man, Col. Cresap, the last 
spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, 
not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of 
my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for re- 
venge. I have sought it. I killed many. I have fully glutted my 
vengeance. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do 
not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. 
He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for 
Logan? Not one." 

See Drake, Op. cit., p. 42) ; Yawger, The Indian and the 

Pioneer (Syracuse, 1893), Vol. I, p. 89; Jefferson, 

Notes on Virginia, etc. 

12. Mackatanamakee, or Black Thunder (a chief of the Foxes). 

(a) If this be the conduct of an enemy, I shall never be your friend 
(said at Portage, in 1815, to the American commissioner). 

(b) Again, I call heaven and earth to witness, and I smoke this pipe in 
evidence of my sincerity. My only desire is that we should smoke it 
together, — that I should grasp your sacred hand, and I claim for myself 
and my tribe the protection of your country. When this pipe touches 
your lip, may it operate as a blessing upon all my tribe. May the smoke 
rise like a cloud, and carry away with it all the animosities which have 
arisen between us (said on the same occasion as above). 

See Drake, Op. cit., p. 632; Yawger, Op. cit., pp. 82-84. 

13. Madokawando (a sachem of the Penobscots). 

We have waited a great while already, and now we expect you will say 
"Yes" or "No" (said to the English, in 1675). 

14. Mahaseah (a chief of the western Indians). 

(a) I have not avenged the death of my father. My heart is at rest. 
I will go to war no more. I told General Clark, when I was last at St. 
Louis, that I would take this peace talk. My word is out. I will fight 
no more. 

(6) Yes, you are my wife. I am your husband; I have been a long 
time from you. I am glad to see you; you are my pretty wife, and a 
brave man always loves a pretty woman (said, in 1824, after having been 
away from his wife on the road to Washington). 

(c) I have buried the tomahawk. I am now a man of peace (said, in 
1833, to a war-party of Iowa Indians). 

15. Massasoit (sachem of the Wampanoags). 

Am I not Massasoit, co mm ander of the country about us? Are not 
such and such places mine, and the people of them? They shall take their 
furs to the English (said, at Pokanoket, in 1623). 



7 



16. Metakoosega (a chief of the western Ojibwa). 
Am I a dog, that I should lie? (said, in 1826, when Gov. Cass suggested 
that he should bind himself by an oath). 

17. Miantunntjmoh (a sachem of the Narragansetts). 

(a) When your people come to me, they are permitted to use their own 
fashions, and I expect the same liberty when I come to you (said to Gov. 
Dudley, in 1640). 

(b) Brothers, we must be one, as the English are, or we shall soon all 
be destroyed (said about 1642). 

18. Moanahonga (an Iowa Indian). 
(a) I am ashamed to look upon the sun. I have insulted the Great 
Spirit by selling the bones of my fathers. It is right that I should mourn 
(he wore a blacked face to the day of his death). 

(6) I'll go with you. A brave man dies but once. Cowards are always 
dying (said when surrendering to the whites). 

See McKenney, Op. cit., p. 181 and p. 182. 

19. Neapope (a chief of the Sauk Indians). 
Make me so, and show me to the great father (said, as he lifted the ball 
and chain fastened to his leg, to Catlin, the artist, who was about to paint 
a picture of him). 

20. Ninigret (a sachem of the Narragansetts). 

(a) For what are the Narragansetts to pay so much wampum? I 
know not that they are indebted to the English (said, at Boston, in 1647). 

(6) My tongue shall not belie my heart. Whether the debt be paid or 
not, I intended it as a present to the governor (said on the same occasion, 
when doubt arose as to the nature of an envoy of wampum). 

21. Ongpatonga, or Big Elk (a chief of the Omahas). 
Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best men. 
Death will come, and always comes out of season. It is the command 
of the Great Spirit, and all nations must obey. What is past and cannot 
be prevented should not be grieved for (said, in an oration at the burial 
of a Sioux chief, in 1811). 

22. Osceola (a chief of the Seminoles). 
The sun is so high! I shall remember the hour! The agent has his 
day, — I will have mine (said, when arrested and taken to prison, in 1837). 

23. Pezhekezhikquashkum (head-chief of the Ojibwa of Walpole Id.) 

How can I, who have grown old in sins and in drunkenness, break off 
from these things, when the white people are as bad and wicked as the 
Indians? (said, in answer to Rev. Peter Jones, the Indian missionary). 

24. Philip, or "King Philip" (a sachem of the Wampanoags). 
Your governor is but a subject of King Charles of England. I shall not 
treat with a subject. I shall treat of peace only with the king, my broth- 



8 



er. When he comes, I am ready (said, shortly before the war of 1675, to 
the ambassador of the governor of Massachusetts). 

25. Pontiac (the famous Ottawa chief). 

(a) I stand in the path (said, when he was told that the English were 
coming to seize the abandoned French posts). 

(b) He cannot take my life; I have saved his (said of Capt. Rogers, 
whose life Pontiac had saved.) 

26. Pushmataha (a chief of the Choctaws). 

(a) Is that all? Many good warriors get drunk (said on releasing a 
drunken soldier). 

(b) I shall die, but you will return to our brethren. As you go along 
the paths, you will see the flowers and hear the birds sing, but Pushmataha 
will see them and hear them no more. When you shall come to your 
home, they will ask you, "Where is Pushmataha?" and you will say to 
them "He is no more." They will hear the tidings like the sound of the 
fall of a mighty oak in the stillness of the woods (said, to some Indian 
friends, shortly before his death, in 1824). 

(c) Father. When in my own country, I often looked towards this 
Council-house, and wanted to come here. I am in trouble, I will tell 
my distresses. I feel like a small child, not half as high as its father, who 
comes up to look in his father's face, hanging in the bend of his arm, to 
tell him his troubles. So, Father, I hang in the bend of your arm, and 
look in your face, and now hear me speak (said, to the Secretary of War, 
at Washington, in 1824). 

(d) I can boast and say, and tell the truth, that none of my fathers, or 
grandfathers, nor any Choctaw ever drew bow against the United States. 
They have always been friendly. We have held the hands of the United 
States so long, that our nails are long like birds' claws; and there is no 
danger of their slipping out (said on the same occasion as above). 

See McKenney, Hist, of the Ind. Tribes of N. America 
(Phila., 1872), vol. I, pp. 189-192. 

27. Red Jacket, or Sagoweyatha (famous orator and statesman of 

the Senecas). 

(a) A warrior! Sir, I am an orator! I was born an orator! (said 
when a white man flatteringly addressed him as a warrior). 

(6) I have been playing Logan (said, when, as a boy, he used to absent 
himself from the house, he had taken Logan as his model) . 

(c) Ugh! She inspired, she Jesus Christ! And not know Indian? 
(said of Jemima Wilkenson, who sought to convert the Indians to her 
doctrines) . 

(d) Brother, if you white men murdered the Son of the Great Spirit, 
we Indians had nothing to do with it, and it is none of our affair. If he 
had come among us, we would not have killed him; we would have treated 
him well. You must make amends for that crime yourselves (said to 
Rev. Mr. Brackenridge). 



9 



(e) Tell the young man that, if he wishes to see the old chief, he may find 
him with his nation, where other strangers pay their respects to him; 
and Red Jacket will be glad to see him (said, in 1820, when a young 
French nobleman asked him to come to Buffalo to see him). 

(J) I, myself, am the man; the decided enemy of the Americans, so long 
as the hope of opposing them successfully remained, but now their true 
and faithful ally until death (said, to Gen. Lafayette, at a meeting of 
chiefs, when he asked about the youth who once so fiercely opposed the 
Americans) . 

(g) If the British succeed, they will take our country from us; if the 
Americans drive them back, they will claim our land by right of conquest 
(said during the war of 1812). 

(h) Brother, I hear you are going to a place called Governor's Island. 
I hope you will be a governor yourself. I understand that you white 
people think children a blessing. I hope you may have a thousand. 
And, above all, I hope, wherever you go, you may never find whiskey 
more than two shillings a quart (said to Col. Snelling). 

(i) Yes! Much more than the white men, if we are to judge by their 
actions (said when asked if he believed in future rewards and punishments 
and the existence of God). 

(J) The paper then tells a lie. I have it written here (placing his hand, 
with great dignity, upon his brow) . You Yankees are born with a feather 
between your fingers; but your paper does not speak the truth. The 
Indian keeps his knowledge here, — this is the book the Great Spirit gave 
us, — it does not lie! (said, when putting forward his memory against an 
alleged written statement of the whites). 

See McKenney, Op. cit., pp. 17-18, p. 21, p. 22; Drake, 
Op. cit., pp. 595-601 ; Yawger, Op. cit., p. 37. 

28. Samoset (an Indian of Massachusetts). 

Welcome Englishmen! Welcome Englishmen! (said, in 1621, to the 
Pilgrims, who landed at Cape Cod). 

29. Sitting Bull (a medicine-man and chief of the Sioux). 
Indians! There are no Indians left now but me! (said in 1889). 

30. Skenando (a chief of the Oneidas). 

I am an aged hemlock. The winds of a hundred winters have whistled 
through my branches. I am dead at the top. The generation to which 
I belonged has run away and left me (said shortly before his death, in 
1816). 

31. Smohalla (a "prophet" of the Wanapum Indians, 1884). 

(a) You ask me to plough the ground! Shall I take a knife and tear 
my mother's bosom? Then, when I die, she will not take me to her 
bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone! Shall I dig under her skin 
for her bones? Then, when I die, I cannot enter her body to be born 



10 

again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay, and sell it, and be rich 
like white men! But how dare I cut my mother's hair? 

(6) My young men shall never work. Men who work cannot dream, 
and wisdom comes in dreams. 

(c) Do the white teachers believe all they teach? 

(d) Each one must learn for himself the highest wisdom. It cannot 
be taught. You have the wisdom of your race. Be content. 

See James Mooney, in the Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. 
Amer. Ethnol. (Washington), pp. 708-711. 

32. Tecumseh (the famous Shawnee chief). 

(a) The President may sit still in his town, and drink his wine, while 
you and I will have to fight it out (said, to Gen. Harrison, in 1812.) 

(b) These lands are ours. No one has a right to remove us, because 
we were the first owners. The Great Spirit above has appointed this 
place for us, on which to light our fires, and here we will remain. As to 
boundaries, the Great Spirit knows no boundaries, nor will his red chil- 
dren acknowledge any (said, in 1810, to the messenger of the President 
of the United States). 

(c) It (i. e. war) is my determination; nor will I give rest to my feet, 
until I have united all the red men in the like resolution (said in 1810). 

(d) My father? The sun is my father, and the earth is my mother; 
and on her bosom I will repose (said, indignantly, at Vincennes, in 1810, 
when told, "Your father requests you to take a chair." Tecumseh, in 
Indian fashion, sat on the ground). 

(e) Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, 
as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use 
of his children? 

(/) Part do not know how to sell. It requires all to make a bargain for 
all (said, in council, in 1810). 

See Drake, Op. cit., pp. 617-620; Mooney, Op. cit., pp. 
680-691. 

33. Teyoninhokerawen, or John Norton (an educated Mohawk chief) . 

Sir, I shall not experience so great a change in my society, as you imag- 
ine, for I find there are savages in this country also (said, while in England 
in 1804-1805, to one who asked him how he liked returning to savagery). 

34. Tomocomo, or Uttamatomakin (one of the council of Powhatan, 

who was sent to England). 
Count the stars in the sky, the leaves on the trees, and the sand upon 
the sea-shore, — for such is the number of the people of England. 

35. Toohulhulsoote (a " priest" of the Nez Perce* Indians). 
We never made any trade. Part of the Indians gave up their land. 
I never did. The earth is part of my body, and I never gave up the earth. 
So long as the earth keeps me, I want to be let alone (said, in 1877, to 
Gen. Howard). 



11 



36. Waeatjn Haka (a chief of the Winnebagos) . 

(a) The Great Spirit has made the skin of the Indian red, and soap and 
water can not make it white. 

(b) The children of the Indians are asleep, and can not be waked up 
(said, when asked to urge the attendance of the children of the tribe at 
the government schools). 

See McKenney, Op. ext., p. 431. 
37. Wapella (a chief of the Foxes). 
I am not in the habit of talking. I think. I have been thinking all 
day (said in 1833, when Black Hawk was liberated and returned home). 

38. Watjb-Ojeeg (a chief of the Ojibwa of Sault Ste. Marie). 

Father, I have not the eyes I once had. I now am old. I think soon 
this great world will be hid from me. But the Great Spirit is good. I 
want you, father, to hear me. This young man is eyes to me, and hands, 
too. Will you not be good to him? (said, in his old age, when he had a 
young Indian attendant, and was threatened with blindness). 

39. Weatherford (a chief of the Creeks). 
I am in your power; do with me as you please. I am a warrior. I have 
done the white people all the harm I could; I have fought them, and 
fought them bravely; if I had any warriors left, I would still fight, and 
contend to the last. But I have none; my people are all gone; and now 
I can only mourn over the misfortunes of my nation (said, to Gen. Jack- 
son, at Fort Mimms). 

See McKenney, Op. Cit., p. 210. 
40. Wittuwamat (a sachem of the Wampanoags). 

I have another at home, wherewith I have killed both French and Eng- 
lish, and that hath a man's face on it; and by and by these two must 
marry. By and by it shall see, and by and by it shall eat, but not speak 
(said, in 1623, while praising his knife, on the handle of which was painted 
a woman's face). 

41. Miscellaneous., 

(a) The English claim all on one side of the river, the French claim all 
on the other. Where is the land of the Indians? (Delaware chiefs to 
British agent in 1752). 

(6) We will make straight paths; but let us make peace among our 
neighboring tribes first, before we make this path to those afar off (Shaw- 
nee chief, at Johnson Hall conference, in 1768). 

(c) Well, I don't want to be rude, but it does seem to me that you, my 
white brother, have been a long time in coming with that great Book and 
its wonderful story, to tell it to your red brothers in the woods (Cree 
Indian to Rev. E. R. Young). 

(d) We don't know, but it must have been some very rich man (a hea- 
then Eskimo, in reply to the question, "Who made the world?"). 



12 



(e) No! You say whiskey bad. Bad one time, bad all time (Kootenay 
Indian, in 1891, to priest, who tried to get him to take some whiskey when 
sick) . 

(J) This is our land, and not yours (confederated tribes to the English 
in 1752). 

(g) You have once given me life, and now I give it to you. Let me 
meet you no more, for I have paid the debt I owed you (Iroquois chief, 
fighting for the English, to his father, whom he met fighting on the side 
of the French). 

(h) It must be made of hearts and tongues. For, when I have drunken 
plenty of it, my heart is a thousand strong, and I can talk, too, with as- 
tonishing freedom and rapidity (Ottawa chief, to Count Frontenac, when 
asked what he thought brandy was made of). 

(i) I will not bid you go, neither will I bid you stay, but you may use 
your own discretion (a chief of the Indians of Maryland, in 1634, when 
asked if he was willing to have the English settle in his country). 



That the American Indian knows the brevity that is 
the soul of wit, and is capable of the cleverest sort of 
repartee is apparent from the anecdotes, from all kinds 
of sources, that are on record. A Canadian Indian, some 
time after the foundation of Montreal, had imbibed too 
much fire-water and was discovered, aimlessly wandering 
about, by a white man, who inquired, " Indian lost?" 
and received the answer, "No! Indian not lost, wigwam 
lost." In one of our newspapers, not so very long ago 
appeared the story of a child found crying in the city 
streets, who, when asked if he was lost, replied, "No! 
I'm not lost, my house is lost." Here, both the savage 
and the child are one in thought. One of the tritest of 
all repartees is ascribed to a Sioux Indian maiden. 
This young woman happened to be in the hall of some 
educational or public institution, during an exhibition 
of Indian products, etc., when a lady of the typically 
(Boston) intellectual sort approached and said, "Are 
you civilized?" to which the Indian maiden replied, as 
sweetly as may be, "No! are you?" What could exceed 
in dignified laconicism the remark made by Black Hawk, 
chief of the Sauks and Foxes, to President Jackson, at 
Washington, in 1833? — "I am a man, and you are an- 
other." Brief, and pointed also, are the words of the 
Sioux chief, American Horse, in 1890: "We were made 




13 



many promises, but have never heard from them since"; 
of the Onondaga Garangula, in 1684: "We are born 
free; we depend neither on France, nor on England"; 
of Mackatananamikee, chief of the Foxes, in 1815: 
"If this be the conduct of an enemy, I shall never be 
your friend"; of Madokawando, the Penobscot sachem, 
in 1675: "We have waited a great while already, and 
now we expect you will say 'Yes' or 'No'"; of Mian- 
tunnumoh, the Narragansett sachem, in 1642: "Broth- 
ers, we must be one, as the English are, or we shall 
soon all be destroyed"; of Moanahonga, an Iowa In- 
dian: "I'll go with you. A brave man dies but once. 
Cowards are always dying"; of Pontiac in regard to 
Captain Rogers : "He cannot take my life ; I have saved 
his"; of Red Jacket, who said indignantly to the white 
man who had sought to flatter him by calling him a 
warrior: "A warrior! Sir, I am an orator! I was born 
an orator!" of the Sioux, Sitting Bull in 1889: "In- 
dians! There are no Indians left but me!" 

Some of the other sayings on record, for apt seizing of 
the situation and witty or sarcastic setting forth of it, 
belong with many of the wise and clever sayings of our 
own race. Little Turtle, a Miami chief of the latter 
part of the 18th century, while having his picture painted, 
said concerning an Irishman, with whom he had had 
several jesting-bouts, and who had begun to boast of 
victory over his Indian competitor: "He mistakes. 
I was just thinking of proposing to this man to paint us 
both on one board, and there I would stand face to face 
with him, and blackguard him to all eternity. ' 1 Worthy 
to rank with Cromwell's famous observation to his por- 
trait-painter are the words of Neapope, a chief of the 
Sauks, spoken to Catlin the artist, who was about to 
make a picture of him: "Make me so, and show me to 
the Great Father," — and he lifted the ball and chain 
fastened to his leg. Unexpectedly soft and affectionate, 
— to those who have not known the Indian well, is the 
remark of Mahaska, a chief of the Western Indians, in 
1824 (he had just returned from Washington): "Yes, 



14 



you are my wife. I am your husband; I have been a 
long time from you. I am glad to see you; you are my 
pretty wife, and a man always loves a pretty woman. " 
Such chivalrous touches as this are to be met with again 
and again in the domestic life of the Indian, — and yet 
some, like Mr. Fink, in his book on Romantic Love and 
Personal Beauty , would deny altogether to the Red Men 
the possession of (or the instinct of) " romantic love." 

That the familiar proverb, "Do at Rome, as the 
Romans do," does not exhaust the possibilities of 
human appearances is made clear by the statement 
of Miantunnumoh, the Narragansett sachem, to Gover- 
nor Dudley in 1640: "When your people come to me, 
they are permitted to use their own fashions, and I 
expect the same liberty, when I come to you." Among 
the sayings of Red Jacket, the Seneca orator and 
statesman is this, uttered in 1820, when a young 
French nobleman asked him to come to Buffalo to 
see him: "Tell the young man that, if he wishes to 
see the old chief, he may find him with his nation, where 
other strangers pay their respects to him; and Red Jack- 
et will be glad to see him." More significant even, is 
the reply of Teyoninhoketawen (or John Norton), an 
educated Indian of the Mohawk tribe, made in 1805, 
while in England, to one who asked him how he liked 
returning to savagery: "Sir, I shall not experience so 
great a change in my society as you imagine, for I find 
there are savages in this country also." As an example 
of indignant remonstrance, the observation of Meta- 
koosega, a chief of the Western Ojibwa, in 1826, when 
Governor Cass suggested that he should make oath to 
his statements, could hardly be exceeded: "Am I a 
dog, that I should He?" As short and pithy is the ques- 
tion of Smohalla, the "prophet" of the Wanapum Indians, 
asked in 1884, of a white man who had inquired of him 
if he believed all the things he taught: "Do the white 
teachers believe all they teach?" There is wise rebuke, 
too, in the saying of the Fox chief Wapella (in 1833) : 
"I am not in the habit of talking. I think." 



15 



Of comments on the coming of the missionaries and 
their teachings we have the inquiry of Pezhekezhikquash- 
kum, an Ojibwa chief, made to the Rev. Peter Jones, in the 
early part of the nineteenth century: "How can I, who 
have grown old in sins and in drunkenness, break off 
from these things, when the white people are as bad and 
as wicked as the Indians?" and the observation of the 
bred Indian to Rev. E. R. Young: "Well, I don't 
want to be rude, but it does seem to me that you, my 
white brother, have been a long time in coming with 
that great Book and its wonderful story, to tell it to 
your red brothers in the woods. " As a contribution to 
the literature of the "combat of father and son" motif, 
well-known in the Oriental folk-lore, may be cited the 
words of the Iroquois chief, fighting for the English, to 
his own father, whom he met on the side of the French 
in battle: "You have once given me life, and now I 
give it to' you. Let me meet you no more, for I have 
paid the debt I owed you." Concerning whiskey, a 
number of interesting remarks have been made by 
Indians, beginning with the reply of the Ottawa chief 
to Count Frontenac, who had asked him what he thought 
brandy was made of: "It must be made of hearts and 
tongues. For, when I have drunken plenty of it, me 
heart is a thousand strong, and I can talk, too, with 
astonishing freedom and rapidity. " Pushmataha, a chief 
of the Choctaws, in the first quarter of the 19th century, 
said, when told about a drunken soldier: "Is that all? 
Many good warriors get drunk!" Red Jackets fare- 
well remarks to Colonel Snelling deserve notice here: 
"Brother, I hear you are going to a place called Gover- 
nor's Island. I hope you will be a governor yourself. 
I understand that you white people think children a 
blessing. I hope you may have a thousand! And, 
above all, I hope, wherever you go, you may never find 
whiskey more than two shillings a quart. " We might, 
perhaps, class Red Jacket among the early "anti race- 
suicide" advocates! The Single-Taxers find companion- 
ship in Tecumseh, who declared: "Sell a country! 



16 

Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as 
well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them 
all for the use of His children? " And no one has seen the 
limitations of new religions and the pretended renais- 
sances of older prophets and deities more than Red Jacket, 
who said, in reference to Jemima Wilkenson, who sought 
to convert the Indians to her doctrines: "Ugh! she 
inspired, she Jesus Christ! And not know Indian!" 

Examples of figures of speech occurring in the utter- 
ances of Indians are the following. In 1798, Honayawus, 
or Farmer's Brother, a Seneca chief, said of the war of 
the Revolution and its close: "The Great Spirit spoke 
to the whirlwind and it was still" ; Little Black, a Winne- 
bago chief, said to Mr. Gratiot in 1832: "My father, 
I ask nothing but a clear sky above our heads, which 
have been hanging down lately, and the sky has been 
dark, and the wind has been blowing continually and 
trying to blow lies in our ears, but we turn our ears from 
it. But when we look toward you, the weather is clear, 
and the wind does not blow" ; in the course of his remarks 
to the American commissioner, at Portage, in 1815, 
Mackateananamikee, a chief of the Foxes, said: "May 
the smoke [of this pipe] rise like a cloud, and carry away 
with it all the animosities which have arisen between 
us"; Pushmataha, the Choctaw chief, said in reference to 
his approaching death: "They will hear the tidings like 
the sound of the fall of a mighty oak in the stillness of 
the woods"; Skenando, an Oneida chief, said, in 1816: 
"I am an aged hemlock. The winds of a hundred win- 
ters have whistled through my branches. I am dead at 
the top. The generation to which I belonged has gone 
away and left me"; Wakaunhaka, a chief of the Winne- 
bagos, said, when asked to urge the attendance of the 
children of his tribe at the government schools: "The 
children of the Indians are asleep, and can not be waked 
up." Specially worthy of note are the words of the 
Choctaw chief Pushmataha to the Secretary of War, 
at Washington, in 1824: "I can boast and say, and tell 
the truth, that none of my fathers, or grandfathers, nor 



17 



any Choctaw, ever drew bow against the United States. 
They have always been friendly. We have held the 
hands of the United States so long, that our nails are 
long like birds' claws, and there is no danger of their 
slipping out." This is a figure, the direct opposite of 
"hands across the sea." A figure of an entirely dif- 
ferent sort occurs in another speech of this same chief: 
"I feel like a small child, not half as high as its father, 
who comes to look in his father's face, hanging in the 
bend of his arm, to tell him his troubles. So, Father 
[the Secretary of War], I hang in the bend of your arm, 
and look in your face, and now, hear me speak." 

Doubtless, if we had more complete records of the 
speeches of the orators of various Indian tribes, we should 
meet with many more of these interesting figures. But 
of the longer speeches, such, e. g., as the famous one of 
Logan, we have at best only a white man's recollection 
(or perhaps redaction), and not a, true text with all its 
native stylistic peculiarities. We have, however, just 
as much as we have of some of the sayings of the great 
ones of classic antiquity. 

II. The Indian on the Frailties and Foibles of Men 
and Women. 

In the legends, myths and stories of the North Ameri- 
can Indians we meet with many items that can be classed 
appropriately under this rubric. The creation-legends, 
in particular, furnish us with many examples; also fire- 
side tales, etc. That the Indian has seized upon the 
chief "human" situations, and treated them essentially 
as we do, with the addition, perhaps, of a little more 
"poetic justice," will be evident from the material cited 
below. 

1. The Descent of Man. In a creation-lege^nd of the 
Miwok Indians of California, reported by the late Stephen 
Powers, we have a good example of what happened 
when each one of the animals sought to create man in 
his own image, but all were outwitted by the cunning 
coyote. This legend suggests comparison in some re- 



18 



spects with the Bestiaria of the Middle Ages in Europe, 
the Parliament of Fowls, and the like. The story might 
almost pass for a satire on the importance of the indi- 
vidual. The legend is as follows: 

After the Coyote (mountain-wolf) had finished all the work of the world 
and the inferior creatures, he called a council of them to deliberate on the 
creation of man. They sat down in an open space in the forest, all in a 
circle with the Mountain-Lion at the head. On his right sat the Grizzly 
Bear, next the Cinnamon Bear, and so on around, according to the rank, 
ending with the little Mouse, which sat at the Lion's left. 

The Lion was the first to speak, and he declared he should like to see 
Man created with a mighty voice like himself, wherewith he could frighten 
all animals. For the rest, he would have him well-covered with hair, 
terrible fangs in his jaws, strong talons, etc. 

The Grizzly Bear said it was ridiculous to have such a voice as his 
neighbor, for he was always roaring with it, and scared away the very 
prey he wished to capture. He said the Man ought to have prodigious 
strength, and move about silently but very swiftly, if necessary, and be 
able to grip his prey without making a noise. 

The Buck said that the Man would look very foolish, in his way of 
thinking, unless he had a magnificent pair of antlers on his head to fight 
with. He also thought it was very absurd to roar so loudly, and he would 
pay less attention to the Man's throat than he would to his ears and eyes, 
for he would have the first like a spider's web and the second like fire. 

The Mountain-Sheep protested he never could see what sense there 
was in such antlers, branching every way, only to get caught in the thick- 
ets. If the Man had horns, mostly rolled up, they would be like a stone 
on each side of his head, giving it weight, and enabling him to butt a great 
deal harder. 

When it came to the Coyote's turn to speak, he declared all these were 
the stupidest speeches he ever heard, and that he could hardly keep awake 
while listening to such a pack of noodles and nincompoops. Every one 
of them wanted to make the Man like himself. They might just as well 
take one of their own cubs and call it a man. As for himself, he was not 
the best animal that could be made, and he could make one better than 
himself or any other. Of course, the man would have to be like himself 
in having four legs, five fingers, etc. It was well enough to have a voice 
like the Lion, only the man need not roar all the while with it. The Griz- 
zly Bear had also some good points, one of which was the shape of his 
feet, which enabled him easily to stand erect; and he was in favor, there- 
fore, of making the Man's feet nearly like the Grizzly's. The Grizzly 
was also happy in having no tail, for he had learned from his own experi- 
ence that that organ was only a harbor for fleas. The Buck's eyes and 
ears were pretty good, perhaps better than his own. Then there was 
the Fish, which was naked, and which he envied, because hair was a bur- 



19 



den most of the year; and he, therefore, favored a Man without hair. 
His claws ought to be as long as the Eagle's so that he could hold things 
in them. But, after all, with all their separate gifts, they must acknowl- 
edge that there was no animal besides himself that had wit enough to 
supply the Man; and he should be obliged, therefore, to make him like 
himself in that respect also, — cunning and crafty. 

After the Coyote had made an end, the Beaver said he never heard such 
twaddle and nonsense in his life. No tail, indeed! He would make a Man 
with a broad flat tail so that he could haul mud and sand on it. The Owl 
said all the animals seemed to have lost their senses; none of them wanted 
to give the Man wings. For himself, he could not see of what use anything 
on earth could be to himself without wings. 

The Mole said it was perfect folly to talk about wings, for with them 
the Man would be certain to bump his head against the sky. Besides 
that, if he had eyes and wings both, he would get his eyes burnt out by 
flying too near the sun; but, without eyes, he could burrow in the cool 
soft earth, and be happy. 

Last of all, the little Mouse squeaked out that he would make a Man 
with eyes, of course, so he could see what he was eating; and, as for bur- 
rowing in the ground, that was absurd. 

So the animals disagreed among themselves, and the council broke up 
in a row. The Coyote flew at the Beaver and nipped a piece out of his 
cheek; the Owl jumped on top of the Coyote's head, and commenced 
lifting his scalp, and there was a high time. 

Every animal set to work to make a Man according to his own ideas; 
and, taking a lump of earth, each one commenced moulding it like him- 
self; but the Coyote began to make one like that he had described in the 
council. 

It was so late before they fell to work, that night-fall came on before 
anyone had finished his model, and they all lay down and fell asleep. 
But the cunning Coyote staid awake and worked hard on his model all 
night. When all the other animals were sound asleep, he went around and 
discharged water on their models, and so spoiled them. In the morning, 
early, he finished his model and gave it life long before the others could 
make new models; and thus it was that Man was made by the Coyote. 

See S. Powers, in Contrib. to N. Ameri. Ethnol., vol. Ill 
(Washington, 1877), pp. 358-360. 

2. The Social Compact. Father De Smet, under date 
of October 30, 1845, records a most interesting legend of 
the Blackfoot Indians concerning the relations of men 
and women, which belongs to the literature of "femin- 
ism." The concluding paragraph testifies amply to the 
existence of "suffragettes" among these Indians of the 
Plains. The story runs thus: 



20 



I encamped on the banks of two lakes to the east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, which the Blackfeet call the lake of men and the lake of women. 
According to their traditions, from the first of these issued a band of 
young men, handsome and vigorous, but poor and naked. From the 
second an equal number of ingenious and industrious young women, who 
constructed houses and made themselves clothing. They lived a long 
time separate and unknown to each other, until the great Manitou, Wiz- 
ak^schak (Wisaketchak), or Old Man (still invoked by the Blackfeet) 
visited them. He taught them to slay animals in the chase, but they 
were yet ignorant of the art of dressing skins. 

Wizakeschak conducted them to the dwelling of the young women, 
who received their guests with dances and cries of joy. Shoes, leggings, 
shirts, and robes, garnished with porcupine quills, were presented them. 
Each young woman selected her guest, and presented him with a dish of 
seeds and roots; the men, desiring to contribute to the entertainment, 
sought the chase, and returned loaded with game. 

The women liked the meat, and admired the strength, skill and bravery 
of the hunters. The men were equally delighted with the beauty of their 
trappings, and admired the industry of the women. Both parties began 
to think they were necessary to each other, and Wizakeschak presided 
at the solemn compact in which it was agreed that the men should become 
the protectors of the women, and provide all necessaries for their support; 
whilst all other family cares would devolve on the women. 

The Blackfeet squaws often bitterly complain of the astonishing folly 
of their mothers in accepting such a proposition, declaring, if the compact 
were yet to be made, they would arrange it in a very different manner. 

See Chittenden and Richardson's Life, Letters, and Trav- 
els of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J., 1801-1872 
(N. Y. 1905), vol. II, pp. 525-526. Also Father 
De Smet's Letters, etc. 

It is easy to see that the Blackfeet are thoroughly 
human on the most human of all subjects. The theory 
of the utter helplessness of the original males, might be 
set off against Kipling's view that "the female of the 
species is more deadly than the male." 

3. 11 It is not good that man should be alone." In our 
own Bible, inherited from the wisdom of the Semitic 
peoples of Asia Minor, we read the word of the Lord: 
"It is not good that the man should be alone." Not a 
few Indian legends state the same thing. In a legend of 
the Pawnee Indians occurs the following: 

Then he (Atius, the creator) made one man like the men of to-day. 
When this man had been created, he said to himself, "How is it now? 



21 



There is still something that does not quite please me." Then Atius 
made a woman, and set her by the man, and the man said, "You knew 
why I was not pleased. You knew what I wanted. Now I can walk 
the earth in gladness." 

See George B. Grinnell, in Journal of American Folk- 
Lore, vol. VI, p. 123. 

4. "It is not good that the woman should be alone." 
These same Pawnee Indians, however, are rather open- 
minded, for in another creation-legend, it is a woman, who 
is created first, and to whom the primal loneliness is 
attributed. Part of a myth of the Pawnees of Okla- 
homa runs thus: 

After Tirawa had created the sun, moon, stars, the heavens, the earth 
and all things upon the earth, he spoke, and, at the sound of his voice, 
a woman appeared upon the earth. Tirawa spoke to the gods in the 
heavens, and asked them what he should do to make the woman happy 
and that she might give increase. The Moon spoke and said, "All things 
that you have made you have made in pairs, as the Heavens and the 
Earth, the Sun and the Moon. Give a mate to the woman, so that the 
pair may live together and help one another in life. Tirawa made a 
man and sent him to the woman; then he said: "Now I will speak to both 
of you. I give you the earth. You shall call the earth 'mother.' 
The heavens you shall call 'father.' You shall also call the moon 
'mother,' for she rises in the east; and you shall call the sun 'father,' 
for he rises in the east. In time you, woman, shall be known as 'mother, ' 
and the man shall be known as ' father. ' I give you the sun to give you 
light. The moon will also give you light. The earth I give you, and you 
are to call her 'mother,' for she gives birth to all things. The timber 
that shall grow upon the earth you shall make use of in many ways. 
Some of the trees will have fruit upon them. Shrubs will grow from the 
ground and they will have berries upon them. All these things I give 
you and you shall eat of them. Never forget to call the earth 'mother,' 
for you are to live upon her. You must love her, for you must walk 
upon her. I will now show you how to build a lodge, so that you will 
not be cold or get wet from the rain. ... I make you to live in 
the lodge, and you shall increase, but you are not to live forever. You 
are to die and will be placed under the ground again. You and your 
children must always remember that I gave you life, but you are to return 
to the earth again. 

G. A. Dorsey. The Pawnee Mythology, Pt. I (Carneg. 
Inst., Washington, 1906), pp. 13-14. 



The "lecture" of Tirawa is, perhaps, quite as good 
and effective as many of the discourses delivered to-day 



22 



at our "Mothers' Meetings" and " Parent-Teachers' 
Associations " by those professionally engaged in the 
"uplift" of the masses. 

5. " The Gospel of Work. " Many uncivilized peoples 
appear to be thoroughly familiar with the "efficiency" 
campaign that has run riot among ourselves of recent 
years, in which the value and normality of evolutional 
"rest" and "idleness" has been altogether forgotten, 
and it has been assumed that anyone not at work is 
a criminal or a degenerate, or has the making of one 
or both. Like our modern philosophers, some Indians 
have held with the Rev. Isaac C. Watts, 

"For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do." 

A legend of the Wyandots (Iroquoian stock) of Ander- 
don (Ont.) informs us: 

When the Brothers were preparing the land for the Indians to live in, 
the manner of their work was that, as often as the Good Brother made or 
designed anything for the benefit of mankind, the Bad Brother objected, 
and devised something to counteract the good intention, so far as he could. 
Thus, when the Good Brother made rivers for the Indians to journey on, 
it was his design that each river should have a two-fold current (or, rather, 
perhaps, a double channel), in which the streams should flow in opposite 
directions. Thus the Indians would be able always to float easily down- 
stream. This convenient arrangement did not please the Bad Brother. 
He maintained that it would be too good for the people. 'Let them at 
least,' he said, 'have to work one way up-stream.' He was not content 
merely to defeat his brother's design of the return current, but he created, 
at the same time, rapids and cataracts for the further delay and danger of 
voyagers. ^ fi ^ Joum Amef Fo i k . Lo re, vol. I (1888) 

p. 182. 

The Menomini Indians, a branch of the great Algon- 
kian stock, have the following story concerning Mana- 
bush, their culture-hero: 

When Manabush ventured empty-handed from his hunting trip, he 
and his grandmother, Nokomis, gathered together all their effects, moved 
away from the place where they had dwelt, and built a new wigwam 
among the trees in the new locality. 

These trees were maples, and the grandmother of Manabush said to him, 
"Now, my grandson, you go into the woods and gather for me some pieces 
of birch-bark; I am going to make sugar." So Manabush went into the 



23 



woods and gathered some strips of birch-bark, which he took back to the 
wigwam, where his grandmother had cut some pieces of bark to make 
thread for sewing together pieces of birch-bark to make vessels to contain 
the sugar. 

The grandmother of Manabush then went from tree to tree, cutting a 
small hole into the bark of each and inserting into each cut a small piece 
of wood over which the sap ran into the vessels placed beneath. Mana- 
bush followed his grandmother from tree to tree, watching her, and look- 
ing for the sap to drop into the vessels, but none was to be seen. When 
she had gone round among the trees, and cut holes for as many vessels 
as she had made, Manabush went back, and, looking into the vessels, saw 
that all of them had suddenly become half full of thick syrup. 

Manabush dipped his finger into the syrup, and tasted it. Finding it 
sweet, he said, "My grandmother, this is all very good, but it will not 
do to have these trees produce syrup in this manner. The people will 
not have any work, if they make sugar so easily; they must cut wood to 
boil the syrup for several nights, and to keep them occupied that they 
may not get into bad habits; I will change all this." 

So Manabush climbed to the very top of one of the trees, when he took 
his hand and scattered water all over the maples, like rain, so that the 
sugar should dissolve and flow from the trees in the form of sap. . This is 
why the uncles of Manabush and their descendants always have to work 
hard when they want to make sugar. Wood must be cut, vessels must be 
made, and the sap that is collected must be boiled for a long time, other- 
wise the people would spend too much time in idleness. 

See W. J. Hoffman in Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bureau of 
Ethnology (Washington), pp. 173-174. 

We are justified in believing that many Indians have 
as little belief as have many of our race in the theory 
of " making things hard," which today threatens again 
to assume control of our educational processes and in- 
stitutions. 

6. Why Rain is Wet. This is a question, which, 
according to widespread advertisements, can be an- 
swered by reference to the Children's Encyclopedia, a 
work that guarantees to ease the young mind in a hun- 
dred other ways. This legend (in part) of the Caddo 
Indians of Louisiana, containing a primitive philosophy 
of " coming in out of the wet/' is just as informing and 
interesting as many of the answers to be found in books 
of the sort just mentioned. And it has a hygienic twist 
as well, besides allowing Coyote to pose as a conservator 
of the family. One can also see that in those days among 



24 



the Caddos "pure democracy," with the referendum 
and the recall, must have been in full flourish. 

In the beginning of the world there were many, many people, and the 
people held councils to decide how things should be. There was one 
man named Coyote, who always had something to say on every subject. 
At one council this question came up: "How and what kind of rain 
should be in the world?" One of the men said that it should rain in the 
form of lead balls, which would be very dangerous, and so, when the rain 
came, the people would have to stay at home. Then Coyote arose from 
his seat and said: "If it should rain nothing but lead, it would be very 
dangerous for my people, because they do not stay at home very much; 
and, as for myself, I might be carrying a big deer to my family to eat, 
when the rain begins to fall, and I would certainly be killed. I say, let 
it rain in drops of water. Then we can be caught out in the rain, and get 
very wet, but we will soon be dry again, and the wetting will be good for 
us." The people accepted Coyote's suggestion, and so it is that it rains 
in the form of water. 

See G. A. Dorsey, Op. cit., p. 26. 

6a. Why Snow is Cold. From the Maidu Indians 
of Northeastern California we have another story of 
the type of the previous one, "The Wolf makes Snow 
Cold," a myth recorded by Professor R. B. Dixon. 

Wolf and his wife lived toward the southwest. They had a daughter, 
who was married and had many children. The children were out playing, 
when it began to snow. It kept snowing until the snow was up to people's 
knees. Then it cleared off. Next morning the children went out and 
began to play. They made a great deal of noise, shouting and calling 
to each other, as they played in front of their grandfather's house. The 
children played all day, and next morning they began again. Toward 
night the old Wolf grew angry. He wanted to sleep, but the children kept 
him awake. It was the first time the children had ever seen snow, that 
was why they made so much noise. Wolf said to his wife, "I will teach 
these children something." Then he went outsaide the house, and 
urinated in the snow, all about the camp. That made the snow cold; 
before, it had been warm. The children played about a while; but their 
fingers and toes soon got cold, and the}' went into their mother's house to 
warm themselves, and cried. Then W T olf went back into the house and 
went to sleep. That is the way he spoiled the snow. 

See R. B. Dixon, in Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1902, 
vol. XVII, p. 101. 

In our "civilization", we, too, have "Old Wolves" who 
suffer from insomnia and play just as mean tricks upon 
little children. 



25 



7. The Ignorant Housekeeper. The story of the 
Cherokee Indians here cited is really as good as anything 
that has appeared on this subject in The Ladies 1 Home 
Journal, or anything that has been revealed in the ad- 
ventures of Hashimura Togo, the Japanese servant, in 
the wilds of American culture. Surely, the Indian has 
here treated an ancient topic in a humanly humorous 
way. The story runs: 

An old man whose wife had died lived alone with his son. One day he 
said to the young man, "We need a cook here, so you had better get 
married." So the young man got a wife and brought her home. Then 
his father said, "Now we must work together and do all we can to help 
her. You go hunting and bring in the meat, and I'll look after the corn 
and beans, and then she can cook. " The young man went into the woods 
to look for a deer and his father went out into the field to attend to the 
corn. When they came home at night they were hungry, and the young 
woman set out a bowl of walnut hominy before them. It looked queer, 
somehow, and, when the old man examined it, he found that the walnuts 
had been put in whole. "Why didn't you shell the walnuts and then 
beat up the kernels? " said he to the young woman. "I didn't know they 
had to be shelled," she replied. Then the old man said, "You think 
about marrying, and you don't know how to cook." And he sent her 
away. 

See James Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokee," 19th 
Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. (Washington), p. 397. 

8. The two old men who killed each other. This topic 
occurs among several Indian tribes and the stories told 
are often quite as good as those which a similar motif 
has furnished to the literature of the civilized races of 
mankind. One of the stories comes from the Cherokee 
Indians, and is to the following effect: 

Two old men went hunting, One had an eye drawn down, and was 
called Uk-kunagita, "Eye-drawn-down. " The other had an arm twisted 
out of shape, and was called Uk-kusuntsuti, "Bent-bow-shape." They 
killed a deer and cooked the meat in a pot. The second old man dipped a 
piece of bread into the soup and smacked his lips as he ate it. "Is it 
good?" said the first old man. Said the other, "Hayu! uk-kwunagisti, 
— Yes, sir! It will draw down one's eye. " Thought the first old man to 
himself, "He means me." So he dipped a piece of bread in the pot, and 
smacked his lips as he tasted it. "Do you find it good?" said the other 
old man. Said his comrade, "Hayu! uk-usuntsutet — Yes sir! It will 
twist up one's arm." Thought the second old man, "He means me." 



26 



So he got very angry and struck the first old man. and then they fought, 
until each killed the other. 

See Mooney, Ibid., p. 800. 

With this belongs "The Bear and the Two Old Men," 
a story of the Arapaho Indians: 

Two old men were sleeping in a tent with their backs to the fire. A 
bear came in, saw them, and, taking a burning stick from the fire, touched 
one of them on the back. "Stop your foolishness, " said the man who had 
been burned. "It must have been a spark. I did not touch you," 
said the other. The bear was outside laughing. After a time he came 
in again and burned the other's back. "Stop that," said the old man; 
"you are trying to do what you mistakenly think I have done to you." 
The other denied it ; they grew angry and took up stone mauls and began 
to fight. The bear went off laughing. 

See G. A. Dorsey and A.L. Kroeber, Arapaho Traditions, 
(Chicago, 1903), p. 227. 

8a. The Shadow in the Water. Our famous story of 
the Fox and the Shadow of the .grapes in the water has 
an interesting counterpart in the following tale of "Old 
Man (a culture-hero) sees Berries in the Water/' be- 
longing to the Blackfoot Indians: 

One day, an old man. standing on the bank of a stream, saw in the 
water some reflections of berries growing on the bank. He thought them 
to be real berries; so he dived into the water, but could find no berries. 
As soon as he was back upon the bank again, he saw them; so he dived one 
time after another, and finally tied rocks to his legs, that he might stay 
down longer. Then he nearly drowned. At last he was very tired, and, 
finding a shady place under a bush, he lay down to rest. Now, looking 
up, he saw the berries hanging over his head. Xow he was very angry. 
He picked up a club, and beat the berry-bushes until there was but one 
berry left. This is the reason why the' people to this day beat berries 
from the bushes. 

See C. Wissler and C. D. Duval, in Anthrop. Papers. 
Amer. Mils. Nat. Hist.. 1908, vol. II, p. 29. 

In some respects the Indian tale is an improvement 
on the Old World one. The ending is better, perhaps, 
than iEsop, and more generic. 

9. Indian Abderites. In the following tale of the 
Creek Indians of Taskigi, we have evidence that the Red 
Men are not without their fund of humorous stories 



27 



concerning the stupidity of man. Indeed, this Creek 
legend might well have appeared, with appropriate 
illustrations, in Fliegende Blatter, the German comic 
journal, which has made so much fun at the expense of 
the hunter, and paid so much attention to the jocoseria 
of the animal world. Its sarcasm might also be of some 
use to many of the hunters of our day and generation, 
who, when they are in the woods of Maine, sometimes 
turn out to be unable to distinguish between a deer and 
a man. All races, seemingly, have their Abderites. This 
story runs: 

A long time ago people were very stupid. There were two hunters who 
started out for turkeys. They had never seen a turkey or a deer, but they 
had been told about them. As they went along, a grasshopper flew up 
between them, when they were about a hundred yards apart. Neither 
of the men knew what a turkey looked like. The grasshopper flew a little 
way, then alighted on one of the foolish hunters. It alighted on his 
breast. Now, the man whistled to his companion, and then called to 
him. He pointed to the grasshopper on his breast. Now, the other man 
saw the grasshopper on his friend's breast and thought it was a turkey. 
So he shot at it and killed it. He killed the man, too. 

See F. G. Speck, "The Creek Indians of Taskigi Town," 
in Memoirs Amer. Anthrop. Assoc., vol. II, p. 158. 

10. The Man outwitted by the Child. This very hu- 
man motif has been treated again and again by the In- 
dian, and in a way as interesting and as satisfactory, as 
by any writer of the white race. In a very simple form 
the theme occurs, in a brief legend of the Ojibwa (or 
Chippewa) Indians concerning the discomfiture of their 
culture-hero, Manabozho: 

One day Manabozho appeared upon the earth in an ill-humor. Walk- 
ing along, he espied a little child sitting in the sun, curled up with his toe 
in his mouth. Somewhat surprised at this, and being of a dauntless and 
boastful nature, he set himself down beside the child; and, picking up his 
own toe, he essayed to place it in his mouth, after the manner of the child. 
He could not do it. In spite of all twisting and turning, his toe could 
not be brought to reach his mouth. As he was getting up, in great dis- 
comfiture, to get away, he heard a laugh behind him, and did no more 
boasting that day, for he had been outwitted by a little child. 

See E. R. Emerson, Indian Myths (Boston, 1884), 
p. 366, and Leland, Op. cit. 



28 



But what might be styled the magnum opus of the 
Indians on this topic, is the legend of the Penobscot 
Indians of Maine, accounting for the origin of the 
" crowing" of babies. This remarkable human docu- 
ment deserves a place in all the collections of choice 
literature concerning the beginnings of the individual 
and the racial life. It might be called "The Bachelor 
and the Baby," and its reflections upon the unmarried 
male are as appropriate for white as they were for red 
Americans. This delightful story runs thus, as reported 
by Leland: 

Now it came to pass when Glooskap (the culture-hero of these Indians) 
had conquered all his enemies, even the Kewahqu', who were giants and 
sorcerers, and the m'teoulin, who were magicians, and the Pamola, who 
is the evil spirit of the night air, and all manner of ghosts, witches, devils, 
cannibals, and goblins, that he thought upon what he had done, and won- 
dered if his work was at an end. 

And he said this to a certain woman. But she replied, "Not so fast, 
Master, for there yet remains one whom no one has ever conquered or got 
the better of in any way, and who will remain unconquered to the end of 
time." "And who is he?" inquired the Master. 

"It is the mighty Wasis," she replied, "and there he sits; and I warn 
you that if you meddle with him you will be in sore trouble." 

Now Wasis was the Baby. And he sat on the floor sucking a piece 
of maple-sugar, greatly contented, troubling no one. 

As the Lord of Men and Beasts had never married or had a child, he 
knew nought of the way of managing children. Therefore, he was quite 
certain, as is the wont of such people, that he knew all about it. 

So he turned to Baby, with a bewitching smile, and bade him come to 
him. Then Baby smiled again, but did not budge. And then Master 
spake sweetly, and made his voice like that of the summer bird, but it 
was of no avail, for Wasis sat still and sucked his maple sugar. 

Then the Master frowned and spoke terribly, and ordered Wasis to 
come crawling to him immediately. And Baby burst out into crying 
and yelling, but did not move for all that. 

Then since he could do but one thing more, the Master had recourse 
to magic. He used his most awful spells, and sang the songs which raise 
the dead and scare the devils. And Wasis sat and looked on admiringly, 
and seemed to find it very interesting, but all the same he never moved 
an inch. 

So Glooskap gave it up in despair, and Wasis, sitting on the floor in the 
sunshine, went goo! goo! and crowed. 

And to this day, when you see a babe well contented, going goo! goo! 
and crowing, and no one can tell why, know that it is because he remem- 



29 



bers the time when he overcame the Master, who had conquered all the 
world. For of all the beings that have ever been since the beginning, 
Baby is alone the invincible one. 

See Charles G. Leland, The Algonquin Legends of New 
England (Boston, 1885), pp. 120-122. 

Has any genial devotee of "Child-Study" written or 
sung of the might of infancy in better fashion than this. 
And who has ever "taken down," the bachelor in more 
effective style? Where else can he learn how much 
bigger than the greatest bachelor is the littlest baby? 

III. Indian Words of Aspiration, Faith, Devotion, etc. 

As representing the "higher thought" of some of the 
American Indians north of Mexico, the following 
prayers, ceremonial addresses and like expressions of 
the religious and moral feelings, may be cited. It has 
been noted by more than one observer that some of this 
material invites comparison with the outpouring of the 
Hebrew soul, which, in refined and ennobled form, finds 
place in our English Bible. The brief prayers of the 
Indians often have a touch of "nature-study" about 
them, while others are quite feeling human. The ad- 
dress of the Arapaho priest on "Medicine Night" is a 
good short sermon, as, indeed, are others delivered on 
like occasions by the priests of other tribes. The Karok 
Indian woman's farewell to the child may have been 
"improved" by the recorder, but the ideas therein are 
not at all beyond the thoughts of such primitive people. 
In the sacrifice-prayer of the Pawnee Indian, the appeal 
to all living things occurs. 

1. Song op a Kiowa Indian in the "Ghost Dance." 

My father has pity on me. 
I have eyes like my father's, 
I have hands like my father's, 
I have legs like my father's, 
I have a form like my father's. 

See Mooney, Op. ext., p. 1086. 

2. Song op a Kiowa Indian in the "Ghost Dance." 

That wind, that wind, 

Shakes my tipi (tent), shakes my tipi, 



30 



And sings a song for me, 
And sings a song for me. 

See Ibid., p. 1087. 

3. Song of the Northern Arapaho Indians referring to the 

"Messiah" of the "Ghost Dance." 
My children, my children, 
It is I who wear the morning star on my head, 
It is I who wear the morning star on my head; 
I show it to my children, 
I show it to my children, 
Says the father, 
Says the father. 

See Ibid., p. 1007. 

4. Speech made by Priest at the Arapaho Sun-Dance to all the 

People in the Offerings-lodge. 
Listen, my young people! I am here to tell you that this is Medicine 
Night. From this time on, until the last moment of the dance, you must 
do your best to extend your gifted powers to comfort and relieve your 
grandchildren. Set your thoughts on the gods in the heavens. Be 
careful not to omit any detail of the painting. Tell your grandchildren 
the particular place that they must look. Help them, and give things 
to attract the supernatural beings. Let everyone come into the lodge 
and keep up the spirit, and sing the songs which our forefathers used to 
sing. You know what this Medicine Night means. Make a joyful 
noise for us. Give music to our Father-Above. 

See G. A. Dorsey, The Arapaho Sun-Dance (Chicago, 
1903), p. 138. 

5. Prater of the Directing Priest at the Sun-Dance of the 

Arapaho Indians. 
It is the time of day, my Father, Man-Above, that we call upon you 
for your assistance. We are helpers in every way; so, my guardians, 
Four-Old-Men, listen, watch and guide me aright! Your first painting 
of our former children I am going to imitate, for the cleansing and purify- 
ing of sins and sickness. Will you please give us good days during this 
ceremony? Let this paint which we are about to use upon these young 
children be the light of this tribe! Let your roads of good prospect shine 
upon us! Give more light during the day for vegetation, for our stock, 
for ourselves! My dear, ancient Grandfathers, Grandmothers, Rabbit- 
tipi People, Sun-Dance Lodge-Makers, Sun-Dance Old-Men, Sun-Dance 
Old- Women, Sun-Dance Children, — let your spirits come closer to us! 
Guide us straight, that we may do works in harmony with you! I know 
that I am young, but this was the way which you showed me, and it is 
the desire that this lodge, about to be made, shall be the painting (cleans- 
ing) for all people, and that it will bring prosperity and happiness. 

See Ibid., p. 90. 



31 



6. Part of the Prater op a Shaman of the Navaho Indians (the 
gods of peace have brought the spiritual man to the home of the cor- 
poreal man, where the two elements are happily united, and in the lan- 
guage of the prayer, all "is restored in beauty"). 

The world before me is restored in beauty, 
The world behind me is restored in beauty, 
The world below me is restored in beauty, 
The world above me is restored in beauty, 
All things around me are restored in beauty, 
My voice is restored in beauty, 
It is restored in beauty, 
It is restored in beauty, 
It is restored in beauty, 
It is restored in beauty. 

See W. Matthews, in the American Anthropologist, 
vol. I, 1888, pp. 149-171. 

7. Prater of Priest before the "Star Societt" at the Sun-Dance 

of the Arapaho Indians. 
My Grandfather, Light of the World; Old- Woman-Night, my Grand- 
mother, — I stand here before this people, old and young. May whatever 
they undertake to do in this ceremony, and may their desires and wishes 
and anxieties in their everyday life meet with your approval; may the 
growing corn not fail them, and may everything that they put in the 
ground mature, in order that they may have food and nourishment for 
their children and friends. May whatever light comes from above, and 
also the rain, be strengthening to them, that they may live on the earth 
under your protection. May they make friends with the neighboring 
tribes, and especially with the white people. May the tribe be free from 
all crimes, and may they be good people! 

See Dorsey, Op. cit., p. 36. 

8. Words Whispered into the Ear of a Dead Child bt a Woman of 

the Karok Indians (California), before it is buried. 

O, my darling, my dear one, good-bye! Never more shall your little 
hands softly clasp these old withered cheeks, and your pretty feet shall 
print the moist earth around my cabin never more. You are going on a 
long journey in the spirit-land, and you must go alone, for none of us can 
go with you. Listen, then, to the words which I speak to you, and heed 
them well, for I speak the truth. 

In the spirit-land are two roads. One of them is a path of roses, and it 
leads to the Happy Western Land, beyond the great water, where you 
shall see your dear mother. The other is a path strewn with thorns and 
briars, and leads, I know not whither, to an evil and dark land, full of 
deadly serpents, where you wander forever. O dear child, choose you 
the path of roses, which leads to the Happy Western Land, a fair and 
sunny land, beautiful as the morning. And may the great Kareya (K. 



32 



is a sort of primitive Jesus) help you to walk in it to the end, for your 
little, tender feet must walk alone. O darling, my dear one, good-bye! 

See S. Powers, in Contrib. to N. Amer. EthnoL, vol. Ill 
(Washington, 1877), p. 34. 

9. Prayer of a Pawnee Indian before offering up his Horse as 

a Sacrifice in Distress. 

My Father, dwelling in all places, it is through you that I am living. 
Perhaps it was through you that this man put me in this condition. You 
are the Ruler. Nothing is impossible to you. If you see fit, take this 
trouble away from me. Now, you, all fish of the rivers, and you, all birds 
of the air, and all animals that move upon the earth, and you, O Sun! 
I present to you this animal. You birds in the air, and you animals upon 
the earth, we are related; we are all alike in this respect, that one Ruler 
made us all. You see me, how unhappy I am. If you have any power, 
intercede for me. 

See G. B. Grinnell, in the Journal of American Folk- 
Lore, vol. VI, 1893, pp. 113-130. 

10. A. War-song of the Pawnee Indians. 

Let us see, is this real, 

Let us see, is this real, 

Let us see, is this real, 

Let us see, is this real, 

This life I am living? 

Ye gods who dwell everywhere, 

Let us see, is this real, 

This life I am living? 

See D. G. Brinton, Essays of an Americanist (Philadel- 
phia, 1890), p. 292. 

V. Indian Words about the Family, Home, Love, Child- 
hood, etc. 

Very few people of our own race and stage of culture 
seem to appreciate the extent to which the so-called 
" lower race" are capable of feeling and giving tender and 
beautiful expression to the emotions and sentiments 
bound up with the experiences of family and domestic 
life. Like the Englishman who failed to find a word 
for "home" in the language of his Gallic neighbor, and, 
therefore, to the day of his death, looked upon him as 
more or less of a barbarian, our (often pitiful) lack of 
knowledge concerning the language and customs of the 
Indians leads us, mistakenly, to believe them devoid of 



33 



the fundamental traits of love and affection, in their 
higher reaches at least. But who can read (much more, 
hear sung in its proper setting) the Navaho "Song of 
the House," or listen to the Omaha " medicine man's" 
prayer before the tent of the new-born child, without 
believing that the togetherness of man and woman, and 
the co-operation with human life and its activities of 
all things in sky, air, earth, and sea, are ideas with which 
the Indian mind is altogether familiar. The little 
" Fire-Prayer" of the Navaho woman and the Cherokee 
doctor's " Birth-Incantation, " like the Sioux Indian 
mother's "Song" (after seeing her dead boy in a dream), 
reveal a sympathetic and tender appreciation of child- 
hood, heartily welcome wherever human beings exist. 
Humanly human, too, are the words of the Omaha 
parent to his grandson, the prayer of the priest of the 
Indians of the Sia Pueblo before the unborn child. 
Reading these primitive documents, all must agree that 
the Indian is one with men and women, wherever they 
may be found, — men at the highest moments of the great 
races of all time. 

1. "Song of the House" (sung by the "old man of the songs," or 
shaman, at the dedication of a house, or "house-warming," among the 
Navaho Indians). 

Rising Sun! When you shall shine, 
Make this house happy. 
Beautify it with your beams; 
Make this house happy. 

God of Dawn! Your white blessings spread; 

Make this house happy. 

Guard the doorway from all evil; 

Make this house happy. 

(Spirit of) White Corn! Abide herein; 
Make this house happy. 

Soft Wealth (i. e. skins, blankets, etc.) may this hut cover much; 
Make this house happy. 

Male (i. e. heavy) Rain! Your virtues send; 
Make this house happy. 

Corn Pollen! Bestow content; 
Make this house happy. 



34 



May peace around this family dwell; 
Make this house happy. 

See A. M. Stephen, in the American Anthropologist, 
vol. VI, 1893, p. 353. 

2. Traditional Prayer {of a Navaho Indian woman, as she sprinkles 
an offering of meal on the fire, at the dedication of her house). 
Burn serenely, my fire. 
May peace surround my fire. 
My fire prepares my children's food; 
May it be sweet, and make them happy. 

See A. M. Stephen, hoc. cit., p. 352. 

3. Words of Omaha to Grandson. 

My grandson! It is hard to lose one's mother, to see one's children die, 
but the sorest trial that can come to a man is to have his wife he dead. 

My grandson, before she came to you, no one was so willing to bring 
water for you; now that she has gone, you will miss her care. If you have 
ever spoken harshly to her, the words will come back to you, and bring 
you tears. 

No one is so near, no one can be so dear as a wife; when she dies, her 
husband's joy dies with her. 

My grandson! Old men, who have gone, have taught me this. I am 
old. I have felt the things. I know the truth of what I say. 

See Miss Alice C. Fletcher, in the Journal of American 
Folk-Lore, vol. II, 1889, p. 226. 

4. Prayer (repeated in a low tone by the priest of the Indians of the 
Sia Pueblo, at the natal ceremonies, before the mother is delivered of her 
child). 

Here is the child's sand-bed. May the child have good thoughts and 
know its mother-earth, the giver of food. May it have good thoughts, 
and grow from childhood to manhood. May the child be beautiful and 
happy. Here is the child's bed; may the child be beautiful and happy. 
Ashes-man, let me make good medicine for the child. We will receive 
the child into our arms, that it may be contented and happy. May it 
grow from childhood to manhood. May its know its mother Utset (U. 
was the first created woman), the Kopishtala, and its mother-earth. May 
the child have good thoughts, and grow from childhood to manhood. 
May it be beautiful and happy. 

See Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, in the Eleventh Ann. Rep. 
Bur. Amer. Ethnol, 1889 (Washington, 1890), p. 134. 

5. A " Birth-Incantation" (or Formula, used by the "doctor" 
among the Cherokee Indians, when the mother is about to give birth 
to a child). 



35 

Little boy, little boy, hurry, hurry, come out, come out! 

Little boy, hurry! A bow, a bow (i. e. the characteristic of a warrior)! 

Let's see who'll get it, let's see who'll get it! 
Little girl, little girl, hurry, hurry, come out, come out! 
Little girl, hurry! A meal-sifter, a meal-sifter (the characteristic of a 
woman)! Let's see who'll get it, let's see who'll get it! 

See James Mooney, in the Seventh Ann. Rep. But. 
Amer. Ethnol., p. 364. 

6. Prayer of a Sioux Indian Grandmother, (at first offering made 
by little boy). 

O, Great Mystery, we hear thy voice in the rushing waters below us! 
We hear thy whisper in the great oaks above! Our spirits are refreshed 
with thy breath from within this cave. O, hear our prayer! Behold 
this little boy and bless him! Make him a warrior and a hunter as great 
as thou didst make his father and grandfather. 

See C. A. Eastman, Old Indian Days (N. Y., 1907), 
p. 311. 

7. Song composed by a Sioux Indian Mother (who saw her dead 
child in a dream). 

I made moccasins for him, 
I made moccasins for him, 
For I love him, 
For I love him. 
To take to the orphan, 
To take to the orphan. 
Soon I shall see my child, 
Soon I shall see my child, 
Says your mother, 
Says your mother. 
See James Mooney, in the Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bur. 
Amer. Ethnol., p. 1074. 

8. Prayer of an Omaha " Medicine Man, " or "Man of Mystery" 

(at the door of the tent where lies the infant child on the eighth day after 
birth, the "medicine man" is summoned by the parents). 

Ho! Ye Sun, Moon, Stars, all ye that move in the heavens; 
I bid ye hear me! 

Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, I implore! 

Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the first hill (i. e. 
infancy) ! 

Ho! Ye Winds, Clouds, Rain, Mist, all ye that move in the air; 
I bid ye hear me! 

Into your midst has come a new life. 



36 



Consent ye, I implore! 

Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the second hill 
(i. e. youth) ! 

Ho! Ye Hills, Valleys, Rivers, Lakes, Trees, Grasses, all ye of the earth; 
I bid ye hear me! 

Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, I implore! 

Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the third hill (i. e. 
manhood) ! 

Ho! Ye Birds, great and small, that fly in the air; 
I bid ye hear me! 

Into your midst has come a new life. 

Ho! Ye Animals, great and small, that dwell in the forest; 

Ho! Ye Insects, that creep among the grasses and burrow in the ground; 

I bid ye hear me! 

Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, I implore! 

Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the fourth hill 
(i. e. old age.) 

Ho! All ye of the heavens; all ye of the air; all ye of the earth; 
I bid ye hear me! 

Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, consent ye all, I implore! 

Make its path smooth, then shall it travel beyond the four hills! 

See F. La Flesche, in the Journal of American Folk- 
Lore, vol. XVIII, 1905, p. 273. 

An unprejudiced consideration of all these "wise 
words" of the North American Indians will show that, 
fundamentally and generically, he is "a man as we are 
men, " and in the great situations of life has thought and 
done much as we have thought and done. Truly, the 
races of man are but one, after all. 



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